Posted by Foothill Parent
a resident of Foothill High School
on Jan 18, 2013 at 9:45 am

Was Principal Dwyer's bullying statement taken out of context or is he out of touch on the subject of bullying? When victims are pushed out of a social group over and over again, it can cause a build up of resentment over time and when the victims break, they have brought guns to school and in some cases unleashed violence upon their abusers and/or the public at large. e.g. Columbine, Taft, Marsh, Miller Grove etc. Some statistics: Web Link

Taft - Kern County Sheriff Youngblood said the suspect alleges the two students he targeted had bullied him for more than a year, but the sheriff couldn't confirm the allegations.
"Certainly he believed that the two people he targeted had bullied him, in his mind. Whether that occurred or not we don't know yet," Youngblood said.

I think the idea of the teachers having tasers is a GREAT idea. It could be kept in the emergency bags that they each have in their classrooms, and locked away in their cabinet or drawer. If needed, they can take it out for an emergency. Usually there is a warning for an intruder and teachers are suppose to lock their doors and shut the lights and move children to an area of the classroom so that an intruder doesnt see them in the class. I know in some situations an intruder could walk right in a room and start shooting, but other classes would get the warning and having a taser would be a great asset.If the district makes it mandatory to have teachers learn CPR, they can also have them learn how to use a taser and what to do in an emergency situation.
Administrators need to listen to the teachers who are in class with some of these suspicious characters/students and take it seriously. Who knows what some of these kids carry in their backpacks.If you want teachers to report when a student has bizarre behavior or is suspicious of something, then search his/her backpack and dont just send them back to the classroom. And parents shouldn't defend their kid if their backpack is searched. If a teacher or administrator has reason, then they should be able to search it. Too many parents don't like the invasion of their kid's rights, but too many kids get killed because people ignore the signs that are right in front of them for fear that a parent will sue the school!

Posted by Sunshine
a resident of Highland Oaks
on Jan 18, 2013 at 12:39 pm

We, as a society, have only ourselves to blame. We have failed our schools. We have time and time again chosen not to make education a priority in our society. Our schools do only what they can do with the money that they get which is, very unfortunately, far less than our children deserve. The people attacking our schools are products of those very schools. They have likely been failed whether they have been bullied or whether they had other issues and just didn't "fit the mold" of the educational system. It happens all too often with kids that are ADD or have other possibly undiagnosed issues or issues that schools don't get funding to deal with. The sad thing is, we've made it all about money. So folks, if you want a safer society, we need to do a better job of educating our society and that starts with funding our schools better.

I would like to point out something concerning our elementary & Middle School students being approached by the Gideon Bible Society men. They come every year to various corners when school is about to dismiss and offer small Bibles to the students. Very few take them but those that do are always pleasant to these men, and say thank you. These men distributing these are dressed very casually and are more mature in age. The point some of the parents have and they have expressed it to me, their school crossing guard, is that we teach our children to not accept anything from strangers or talk with strangers. I have taken it on myself to write this Bible group about this and asked that they change their way of doing this. Immediately the police are called and this last visit, three squad cars showed up. The PPD cannot do anything to these people if not on school property and not breaking the law. It has always been my belief that parents are responsible for the religious upbringing of any child until they reach an age of deciding for themselves. I received an answer from the Gideon Society and their response was that they always notify the schools in advance and that they always send two men to each corner. I find that is not true at all and we are especially concerned with safety these days following the Sandy Hook tragedy to name a few.

They can start by better managing the logs (used by visitor sign in @ schools)
These are usually several feet away from the office staff. Anyone can scribble Fred Flintstone on this log, and wonder the campus with a nice visitor sticker.

The way it "should" work

Any visitor needs to provide ID to staff member, + sign the log.
Staff member needs to validate visitor with destination rep./teacher.

Posted by Common sense
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Jan 24, 2013 at 7:29 am

Each teacher should have a taser, including the playground person of the moment. . (personnel who volunteer with guns ok also).. A guard cannot be everywhere.
I assume office & teachers have instant communication, i.e 2-way color coded lights & buzzer codes, and police alarms like home systems....from each classroom.
Seems those are all common sense, most situation measures.... no single, expensive, one-answer that would probably be the one that would not work for that type of incident when needed.
Kids face danger daily, walking behind cars in parking lots while mom's texting, playing at top of stairs. Remember all of this, even happening at the 'school' , much less your classroom, is less odds than being struck by lightning, twice.

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